A gaming machine represented by a slot machine is highly popular among casino customers as a device that provides gaming that is easy to enjoy, and recent statistics report that sales from gaming machines account for the majority of casino earnings. Initial slot machines were simple devices, wherein an inserted coin is received, a configured reel rotates and stops mechanically according to a handle operation, and a win or a loss is determined by a combination of symbols stopped on a single pay line. However, recent gaming machines, such as mechanical slot machines driven by a highly accurate physical reel via a computer controlled stepping motor, video slot machines that display a virtual reel on a display connected to a computer, and various gaming machines that apply similar technology to other casino games are quickly advancing. For the manufacturers that develop these gaming machines, an important theme is to provide an attractive game that strongly attracts casino customers as players, and improves the functionality of the gaming machine.
One attempt to provide a more attractive game experience to players is to provide a bonus game in the form of a lottery ball type game. Such lottery ball type games may be purely mechanical, in which one or more balls are introduced onto a spinning wheel. The spinning wheel has a plurality of numbered pockets. The one or more balls land onto the pockets, forming an outcome of the game. However, mechanical deviations in the spinning wheel or supporting structure may cause uneven game results. Other versions of lottery ball type games may be presented virtually. However, such virtual games may not be as attractive to players as mechanical games.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above.